JOSH PICHLER: Lessons on leadership from Oval Office

7:01 AM,
Jan. 20, 2013

Former President Bill Clinton, right, reacts while looking at framed copy of a Rose Garden speech by President John F. Kennedy, as historian Michael R. Beschloss, left, looks on at the John F. Kennedy Library, in Boston, Wednesday, May 28, 2003. Clinton addressed a crowd of several hundred during a forum called 'A Conversation with President Clinton,' moderated by Beschloss. The framed speech was a gift from Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass.

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Much of historian Michael Beschloss' insights into presidential leadership have come not from studying high-profile speeches and the moments an entire nation sees, but through the daily interactions with staff, family members and constituents.

It's the record of those interactions that ultimately help historians paint the portraits of those who hold our nation's highest office.

A case in point, Beschloss said on Thursday at the annual Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. forum downtown, can be found through President Lyndon Baines Johnson's relationship with Republican Sen. ...